In message <Pine.ULT.3.91a.950215130544.16198A-100000 at stein3.u.washington.edu>
writes:
>
>
> On Wed, 15 Feb 1995, Jobless in Seattle wrote:
>
> > A friend who serves as a classical DJ at the University of
> > Virginia once told me that A. Mozart kept a pet starling. I wonder
> > how many of his compositions are merely covers of melodies invented by
> > his pet starling.
>
> Neil,
>
> Meridith West and Andrew King seem to think the answer is "one." In an
> article they wrote, they noted that one of Mozart's compositions, written
> at the time of his pet starling's death, had some anomalies of rythm and
> phrasing. The curious musical patterns in the piece match some of the
> attributes of starling song, so West and King proposed that perhaps the
> piece was a tribute to the departed bird. I tried
> to locate my copy of the article, but failed - the citation I put at the
> end of this note may be the one I am thinking of, but no author was
> listed where I found it. The date is about right, but I thought the
> original was called "Mozart's starling," and published in American Scientist.
>
> It's good reading for sturnophiles...
>
> TITLE(s): Birdsong Inspired Music Master.
> Summary: Did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart borrow some musical ideas from
> his pet starling?
>
> In: Current science.
> MAY 10 1991 v 76 n 18
> Page: 3
>
> Chris Hill
> Seattle, WA
> cehill at u.washington.edu

The citation for this superb article is:

West, Meredith J., Andrew P. King. 1990. Mozart's Starling: How avian
mimics relate to human companions. American Scientist Volume 78
No. 2 pp. 106-114.


Dan Stephens (509) 662-7443
Dept. of Biology fax: (509) 664-2538
Wenatchee Valley College e-mail: dstephen at ctc.edu
1300 Fifth Street
Wenatchee, WA 98801